Concussion problems could doom football

The number was eye-popping when we came across it tucked about a dozen paragraphs into a San Jose Mercury News article about the suicide of former NFL linebacker Junior Seau.

1,500.

That's how many concussions Gary Plummer, Seau's friend and former teammate with the San Diego Chargers, estimates Seau must have suffered during his 20 years in the NFL.

Outlandish? Well, Plummer backed it up.

"In the 1990s, I (attended) a concussion seminar," Plummer told Cam Inman of the Mercury News. "They said a Grade 3 concussion meant you were knocked out, and a Grade 1 meant you were seeing stars after a hit, which made me burst out in laughter."

Plummer found it humorous, he said, because if a middle linebacker in the NFL didn't hit somebody hard enough to see stars at least five times in a game, he could expect to ride the bench the next week.

"Junior played for 20 years," he said. "That's five concussions a game, easily. How many in his career then? That's over 1,500 concussions. I know that's startling, but I know it's true.

"I had over 1,000 in my 15 years. I felt the effects of it. I felt depression going on throughout my divorce. Junior went through it with his divorce."

Actually, if he even averaged five of those Grade 1 shots per preseason, regular-season and playoff game, Seau would have seen stars 1,780 times.

This sort of stuff is the NFL's worst nightmare.

It's the reason, for those who haven't already figured it out, that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell dropped the hammer so hard on the New Orleans Saints for "Bountygate."

Seau is the third retired NFL player to commit suicide in about a year. In February 2011, former Bears, Giants and Cardinals safety Dave Duerson killed himself while reportedly dealing with depression linked to brain injury. His family is pursuing a lawsuit against the NFL.

He shot himself in the chest so that his brain could be studied.

In April former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling also committed suicide after reportedly suffering from depression and dementia.

On Friday, Baltimore safety Bernard Pollard told a Houston radio station that he believes pro football might be extinct within 20 to 30 years.

"I know what my body has been through," Pollard told Houston's SportsRadio 610 AM. "I'm 27 years old. I take care of myself, but it's a violent sport. I don't want him to have go through it. I don't want to see my son with a concussion."

That last sentiment is the key.

Former Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner echoed that sentiment when he told "The Dan Patrick Show" last week that he would prefer his sons not play football.

"They both have the dream, like dad, to play in the NFL," he said. "And when you hear things like the bounties, when you know certain things having played the game, and then obviously when you understand the size, the speed, the violence of the game, and then you couple that with situations like Junior Seau -- was that a ramification of all the years playing? -- It scares me as a dad.

"I just wonder what the league's going to be like. I love that the commissioner is doing a lot of things to try to clean up the game. ... But it's a scary thing for me."

Say all you want about lawsuits and liability. The NFL's billions will provide a formidable defense.

Doomsday for football will come if parents are afraid to let their kids play.

Reach The Heat Index at 602-444-8271 or bob.young@arizonarepublic.com.

This 2002 tackle of the Cardinals' Freddie Jones (85) by then-Chargers linebacker Junior Seau at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe could have produced one of the more-than 1,500 career concussions Gary Plummer believes Seau suffered during his career.